


In warm water, swimming down

by targaryen_melodrama



Series: Now That You Keep Me Warm [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Anxiety, Bisexual Sam Wilson, Light Angst, M/M, POV Sam Wilson, People love you Sam you should know this, Sam Wilson Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-07-20 09:00:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16133993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/targaryen_melodrama/pseuds/targaryen_melodrama
Summary: “Why are you hiding?””Tired.”Bucky raises an eyebrow. “So you decided to swim.”“So I decided to be alone.”Bucky’s quiet for a moment. “I can go, if you want.”It’s the last thing Sam wants.





	In warm water, swimming down

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you as always to my favourite beta for your encouragement and enthusiasm. It means more than I can express.
> 
> (I still don't understand the space thing, sorry friend.)

The water is surprisingly warm, and Sam is having less and less regrets about jumping in the pool so late, even though he’s alone.

Parties _are_ his thing, but this...this is overwhelming. Sam had lost sight of the few people he actually cared about after one or two drinking games, and didn’t care much for anybody else there. He’d honestly been ready to leave when he ran into Tony and Rhodey. Rhodey suggested he crash in one of the (hundreds of) rooms here, Tony had insisted, and the second Sam agreed, they’d started making out so Sam had escaped.

On his way out of the kitchen where he grabbed a few water bottles (dehydration was real), he spotted the empty pool and before he could think about it too hard, he stepped outside, stripped and jumped in.

After a couple of laps, Sam stopped, satisfied, and looked up at the sky instead, fascinated and confused. The Stark mansion was far enough out of the city that you could properly see the stars.

How could he see the Milky Way if he was _in_ the Milky Way?

 _Jesus, I sound high_.

“Wish Thor was here,” Sam mumbles under his breath. He’d have an explanation for this.

“Thor by the pool wouldn’t be the worst sight,” he hears a familiar voice say.

Speaking of things that aren’t the _worst sight_ , Bucky-Bane-of-his-existence-Barnes is making his way towards the pool, and for the thousandth time, Sam wonders how it’s possible to look this good all the damn time.

Bucky looked good in class after they’d slept two hours cause they were cramming, Bucky looked good with his long emo hair _and_ with his buzzed hair, and Bucky looks good now with long-ish hair, under the pink and blue lights that light up the pool.

 _Bisexual lighting_ , Sam thinks with a smirk, then immediately regrets it because half the reason Bucky is the bane of his existence is that Sam feels ways he has no business feeling towards his best friend’s best friend.

“What are you doing out here alone?”

“Hiding from you. I failed, clearly.”

“You know Wilson, you’d think after a few beers you’d be funnier.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not that drunk anymore.”

Bucky frowns. Fair enough. Sam’s usually up to more banter (or bickering, as Steve calls it). It’s just that he _did_ come here to avoid people. Sam’s not really ready to keep up with Bucky right now. _Am I ever?_

Bucky puts down whatever he’s carrying and sits cross legged on the side of the pool, right in front of Sam. “Why are you hiding? Thought this was your kind of thing.”

_I was tired of wanting to look for you whenever I saw people making out._

_I was tired of wanting you._

_I was tired of wanting._

“Tired.”

Bucky raises an eyebrow. “So you decided to swim.”

“So I decided to be alone.”

Bucky’s quiet for a moment. “I can go, if you want.”

It’s the last thing Sam wants. “Nah, you’re good. I’ll just ignore you like I usually do,” Sam says with a smile, steering them back into familiar territory.

Bucky smiles back before dipping his hand in water and spraying Sam. His face goes serious pretty fast though.

“Wilson...Iーif you ever need to talk or whatever…”

“Is this about last week? You shouldn’t worry about that.”

Okay so Sam had had a _slight_ panic attack before his Child Psychology class. (Bucky, to Sam’s dismay, had seen the whole thing.) It isn’t Bucky’s cross to bear, and he’s about to tell him as much, but Bucky speaks first.

“No. I mean yes.” He frowns again and looks confused by his own words. “I meanーit is about last week, but also more. Youーwe’re friends, right?”

Yeah. _Friends._

“Course we are, Barnes.”

This seems to reassure Bucky. “It’s what friends do, then.” It sounds like a question.

“You telling me or you asking me?”

“I don’t know. Both?” At Sam’s unimpressed look, he rolls his eyes. “I don’t know. Butーit’s just. I want you to be okay,” he finishes quietly.

Sam didn’t know his heart could fill and break at the same time.

“I _am_ okay,” he says.

“Are you?”

He isn’t really, but Sam’s not gonna discuss the depths of his anxiety with his _crush_ , in a _pool_ , at a _Tony Stark party_. Jesus, how did they even get here? Sam is trying to figure out how to turn this weird conversation back around when sees Bucky start to remove his shirt.

 _Oh hell no_.

“What are you doing?” It sounds hysterical, even to him.

“ ‘M gonna swim,” Bucky says, his voice muffled by his shirt. “Am I allowed?” he asks once his shirt is off.

Is Sam supposed to say no to that face? (And that jawline? And that chest?)

“Be my guest,” he says, infinitely more casual than he feels. Bucky immediately dives in. He makes a loud splash, but there’s barely any water that touches Sam.

He watches Bucky swim a few laps. Despite how hard his heart is beating, Sam finds himself relaxing. He had dreaded being interrupted, especially by Bucky, but this is good. Too good, almost.

 _Wish I could do this with him. All the time. For real_.

Bucky slows down and slowly swims towards Sam. Once he’s out of the water, he looksーactually he stares at Sam. Longer than he needs to. Longer than would be polite to.

“Are _you_ okay?” Sam asks.

“I asked you first.”

“I answered.” Bucky looks sceptical, and for some ridiculous reason, that makes Sam move closer to him. “And why are _you_ here? There’s a whole party out there andーand nothing going on here.”

“You believe that?”

“That the party’s still going? Yeah man, it was pretty early when I went outside.”

Bucky’s frown is back and he looks Sam directly in the eye when he asks, “You really believe there’s nothing going on here?”

The question hits close to home, closer than it should and closer than Sam expects it to.

Thing is, Sam isn’t nearly as subtle as he likes to believe.

Nat had told him at least once a week to stop being a baby and confess to his feelings.

Steve, more than once, had drunkenly confessed that he was so happy him and Bucky liked each other, and that he was already conflicted about whose best man he would eventually be.

T’Challa had taken to calling Bucky _his nicewhite boy_ , and Nakia had been consistently asking about double dates.

But Sam knows the truth. There _isn’t_ anything going on here. The reason he hadn’t had any serious relationships at 22, the reason he hadn’t told Bucky, hadn’t made a move is thatー

“What could there possibly be here that you would want?”

Sam watches Bucky’s eyes soften and it feels like the gentlest of blows.

“What could there possibly be here that I _wouldn’t_ want? Do youーdo you know, Sam? Iー” Bucky stops himself and sighs, comes so close to Sam that Sam can see the water clinging to his lashes. “Don’t you know?”

Sam shakes his head, helpless, because he does know, and that’s the problem. “I do. I do know. There’sー” the truth is stuck in Sam’s throat, begging to come out and pleading to stay in at the same damn time “ーthere’s nothing here. There’s nothing to see.”

Bucky’s gaze is piercing, but Sam continues. He has nothing else to lose at this point. “It’s justーit’s just me.”

Bucky stares at him again, longer than Sam is comfortable with, and Sam has to close his eyes.

 _This is it. This is it. He knows. He knows and he doesn’t_ ー

Sam feels a warm hand on his cheek and his eyes fly open.

“It’s just you,” Bucky says, his voice low and rough. “It’s just you and there’s everything to see.”

Somehow, _somehow_ , Bucky gets even closer to Sam, so close that his face gets blurry. Sam loses all focus when Bucky’s lips land on his, soft, wet, and salty. Bucky pecks him once, twice, then he moves away.

They stare at each other for a while. Sam’s not sure what his face is doing, but he feels dumbfounded. Dumbfounded and overwhelmed and...hopeful.

“So _that’s_ why you’re here,” Sam says when he can manage to speak, his lips aching to form a smile though he’s trying his damndest not to let them.

Bucky isn’t holding back. “Yeah,” he says with a grin. Then, more serious, “You’re why I’m here.”

Sam makes the move this time, and after a while, there’s no more confusion. With their lips moving just as softly, but more confident, and their hands roaming _everywhere_ , they both know they’ve found exactly what they were looking for.

  
  
  
**End**.

**Author's Note:**

> Fuck being 5 feet apartーthose boys are real gay (/bi).
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed! Comments make my day, feel free to leave some.
> 
> Title from Warm Water by Banks.
> 
> Lastly, I am on [Tumblr](https://targaryenmelodrama.tumblr.com) if you wanna drop by!


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